Despite a weather forecast suggesting we would have a wet task 16 Goodgymers met under dry skies with Friends of St James Gardens.

Our task was to clear the area around Huskissons monument. it's a large paved area that had become a growing space for a large amount of weeds in between the slabs.

We welcomed Abi who is from Climate Coalition who came to join in and find out more about Goodgym Liverpool for Great Green Week.

It was such a lovely atmosphere with so many people working together. Plenty of opportunities to chat as we worked which is always a plus (in this report writers opinion). Michael from Friends Of St James Park also kept us entertained with his vast collection of jokes.

One of the great things about our tasks is that you see such great results in just an hour. Many hands really do make light work. The difference between the start and finish surprised us all. We still have a bit to finish so will be back next week to finish the task.

Firstly this gorgeous title was designed by our amazing alliteration adept Amina. Secondly the title sums up the whole morning but for those not there lets provide some more context for you. Amina, Steph, Bekah, Dike, Aphra , Jo and Sian all ran our local parkrun which is Princes parkrun. Lucien supported the group - its always lovely to see a familiar face on the two and a half laps. After the run, the group photo and some chat Steph and Amina headed off whilst the others continued the royal theme walking down Windsor Street to local community cafe Squash. Sallyann (me) turned up in time for breakfast ( convenient) having set off at dawn from an overnight camp cycling along a canal with ducklings and herons. Squash breakfast offered a lot of exciting options and we feasted on veggie breakfasts, scrambled egg on homemade foccaccia and yes you guessed it potato cakes. Such a lovely start to a Saturday activity, good company, lovely food and lots of chat. Stickers were placed on our loyalty cards and who knows what categories will have been reached today.... next parkrun is back to the usual rythm of third saturday in the month and we will be going to Rhubarb on Lark Lane afterwards.

Well a lovely big group of us turned up to Urban green-up, some cycling, some running and others walking in sunny weather.

Elaine from Urban green-up explained our previous favourite nettle pulling tasks had now made enough space to plant some robusty plants to hopefully take over the space instead of the stingy aggressive growers!

So we proceeded to layout 140 plants in a natural pattern explained to us 3 same plants together evenly spaced out and one off on its own as the black-sheep making its own new territory. Elaine then expertly checked our layouts and we started to plant away. Some of us still loved the satisfaction of getting hopefully the last of those nettles from their roots! Others also expertly litter picked the garden space to ensure the plants were the centre of attention.

With one of the first tasks where no lights were needed and several thank youse from passers-by, we pow-wowed through the session to: -pick a big pile of nettles to their roots -exterior designer layout 140 plants -proceed to plant said 140 plants -collect 2 bags of litter tightly packed

A perfectly powered up team!